Free blu-ray player software

[galador]

VLC still have not released anything that can play rented/bought blu-ray movies so I am looking for another option.

I am currently using Cyberlink Power DVD 12 trial and got 20 days left.

 

[pwnmachine]

Tbh there aren't really any free players that you could use without decrypting afaik. Nero has a great blu-ray player and is around $20.

If not VSO player is definitely a good free alternative, but as I mentioned usually require a decryptor.

 

[TollhouseFrank]

there are 2 ways to do it. Rip it to your HD and use a free program to watch it. (technically legal), or pony up for a blu-ray software decoder (because blu-ray keys are updated through the internet and the software is needed to keep the key list up to date, etc.)

 

[ruke]

Tbh there aren't really any free players that you could use without decrypting afaik. Nero has a great blu-ray player and is around $20.

If not VSO player is definitely a good free alternative, but as I mentioned usually require a decryptor.

Hello,

Could you be more specific about this Nero's product? I'm also after a Blu-ray player software. I read here http://www.reviewmaze.com/2011/01/windows-blu-ray-player-software.html that there are not free players due to some license fees paid for everything related with Blu-rays although I've heard that VLC is preparing a free player but it seems there is really none at the moment. At that article I also read about some BD playback capabilities of Nero's packages but they seem to be sold at quite a higher price than $20. The cheapest option seems to be Roxio's player but it appears it is not capable of Blu-ray playback anymore. So I'll be grateful for any particular information about the cheapest actual option.

 

[jmdixon85]

I would just buy PowerDVD. I've been using for a couple of months now and it has been great

 

[freakdiablo]

Actually VLC is supposed to have bluray support in 2.0. Could try it now if you don't mind using one of the RCs.

Souce

 

[c627627]

Remember, playing retail Blu-ray DVDs vs. playing unprotected Blu-ray content are two different things.

There are many programs that "play Blu-rays" but when talking about this topic, the correct term is Retail Blu-ray discs.


Here's the problem with PowerDVD, once it reaches End of Life status, it is no longer updated and some retail new movie releases no longer work with it. So buying brand new version buys you more time to use it.

Example: PowerDVD 9 and earlier versions have reach 'End of Life' status:
Build 4105 [2011-05-18] is the final PowerDVD 9 update.
Build 3228 [2010-04-21] is the final PowerDVD 8 update.
Build 4617a [2008-12-11] is the final PowerDVD 7 update.
Build 3430 [2007-11-12] is the final PowerDVD 6 update.


I found that old ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 [now in version 5, there was no version 4] plays more new Retail Blu-ray DVDs than old PowerDVD versions.

 

[freakdiablo]

Remember, playing retail Blu-ray DVDs vs. playing unprotected Blu-ray content are two different things.

There are many programs that "play Blu-rays" but when talking about this topic, the correct term is Retail Blu-ray discs.


Here's the problem with PowerDVD, once it reaches End of Life status, it is no longer updated and some retail new movie releases no longer work with it. So buying brand new version buys you more time to use it.

Example: PowerDVD 9 and earlier versions have reach 'End of Life' status:
Build 4105 [2011-05-18] is the final PowerDVD 9 update.
Build 3228 [2010-04-21] is the final PowerDVD 8 update.
Build 4617a [2008-12-11] is the final PowerDVD 7 update.
Build 3430 [2007-11-12] is the final PowerDVD 6 update.


I found that old ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 [now in version 5, there was no version 4] plays more new Retail Blu-ray DVDs than old PowerDVD versions.

And my friends wonder why I refuse to pay more than $5 per movie on bluray. The whole "will my program play this" thing is way to confusing to convince me to pay more than that Luckily haven't hit a movie PowerDVD 9 hasn't had issues with yet :crosses fingers:

 

[c627627]

Some features of VLC have been broken since v1.1.9 by the way.

Media > Open Disc can open a DVD folder on old v1.1.9. But on every single version after that, including the just released v2.0.0, that feature has been broken. Incredibly, the authors acknowledged this bug to me several times, but don't fix it for some strange reason. I would not upgrade from v1.1.9 of VLC.

EDIT: Host of other video problems introduced in versions after 1.1.9 are also popping up on their forums, so definitely I would not upgrade to VLC 2.

 

[Redstone]

Give Daum PotPlayer a try. I ended up uninstalling VLC after getting potplayer x64 set up the way I like it.

 

[mjw21a]

Just install K-Lite codec pack and use Windows Media Player, it'll work just fine.

http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

If you don't want that you can always try a full HT solution like XBMC which also handles DVD's natively. It's open source: http://xbmc.org/download/

EDIT: My bad, neither of these work with Retail Blue-Ray

 

[mjw21a]

SlySoft AnyDVD removes all restrictions between the drive and the software, unfortunately its not free:

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html

 

[h4rm0ny]

SlySoft AnyDVD removes all restrictions between the drive and the software, unfortunately its not free:

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html

I had the great good fortune to purchase AnyDVD when they did an unlimited offer that would never expire. It has decrypted any Blu-Ray that I've ever bought with nary a hiccup. As that's the main obstacle to playing Blu-Rays, I'm more or less sorted now. For actual playback I've been using VSO. You can also use MPlayer. But I'm actually trying out the very latest VLC and - although Blu-Ray menus are still "coming soon" - it's working great.

PowerDVD came with my Blu-Ray drive and it worked fine for the most part, though I had some painful moments with it. My main issue with it is that they are such scheming money-wranglers who will force you into recurrent upgrades. If you're going to spend money on this, and if your Blu-Ray drive didn't come with something already, I would recommend Slysoft's AnyDVD and grab the newest VLC and just accept you wont have fancy menus until another couple of updates. Long-term, at least AnyDVD will make sure you're good to use any other system for playback that you want.

 

[ruke]

Tbh there aren't really any free players that you could use without decrypting afaik. Nero has a great blu-ray player and is around $20.

If not VSO player is definitely a good free alternative, but as I mentioned usually require a decryptor.

Ok, now I read here that this is more like an addition to other Nero software. It doesn't seem there is a separate player for $20. These guys have actually made an updated version of their reviews here and it seems now the options are even fewer than last year's. Roxio doesn't support Blu-ray playback anymore and the advertised BD playback of VLC is practically not available. The cheapest option is WinDVD but PowerDVD and Total Media Theatre (which are not very cheap) got better reviews so I am still wondering what to get.

 

[ruke]

And my friends wonder why I refuse to pay more than $5 per movie on bluray. The whole "will my program play this" thing is way to confusing to convince me to pay more than that Luckily haven't hit a movie PowerDVD 9 hasn't had issues with yet :crosses fingers:

I read on another forum that PowerDVD versions before 9 are not supported anymore so probably they are not updated and get the most problems. It's quite inconvenient because you have to upgrade often. I think they issue new versions twice per year or something like that.

 

[c627627]

By another forum, do you mean post #7 of this thread?

Give Daum PotPlayer a try. I ended up uninstalling VLC after getting potplayer x64 set up the way I like it.

Thank you kindly for this suggestion. I have decided to abandon VLC for good. I am keeping Media Player Classic Home Cinema

and am replacing VLC completely with Daum PotPlayer.
VLC has been broken for a long time. There's no reason to use it.

Here are the links for Daum PotPlayer
http://www.dvbsupport.net/download/index.php?act=view&id=230
http://www.dvbsupport.net/download/index.php?act=view&id=236

and
Version Info:
http://www.dvbsupport.net/info/potplayer.html

 

[easonjoy01]

This article from UFUSoft.com will guide you to download and place the AACS and BD+ DRM libraries and keys in order to play Blu Ray on Windows with VLC for Free. I tried it successfully.

Free Way to Play Blu-Ray Disc Movie with VLC in Windows

 

[c627627]

Your link appears to be to a commercial Blu-ray player. The top 3 as far as I know are
Arcsoft http://www.arcsoft.com/totalmedia-theatre/
WinDVD http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4090069&storeKey=us
Power DVD http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd/features_en_US.html?&r=1

The other commercial players like UBUSoft may not play as many commercial retail discs, so I'm not sure they're worth the money?


You can't play retail Blu-ray discs on VLC or any other freeware player. They cannot play Retail Blu-ray Discs you buy at the store. [They can play Blu-ray files from your computer, but not from Retail Discs.]

 

[easonjoy01]

UFUSoft Blu-ray Player can play all my commercial blu-ray discs. i have use it now.

 

[habbajabba]

No reason to use VLC? I beg to differ. What other player can record web radio streams as well as stream anything it can play to another instance of itself over a network? I use MPC-HC as well. There is also the newish MPC-BE player, an offshoot of mpc-hc. It's on sourceforge.
http://dev.mpc-next.ru/

If nothing else the gui is much nice than the std mpc one.